12 Minutes Max at The Dance Centre, Vancouver

Blog post for The Dance Centre, Vancouver

Through the 12 Minutes Max residency programme, I will be looking to make dance work that reflects themes of decay, discard and doubt in modern society. I will be exploring with four dancers the use of movement, theatre and spoken word to illustrate, comment and examine our systems of waste disposal from trash to people to thoughts. Explorations will delve into how we treat ourselves, other people and our planet, with an aim to show hope amongst challenging circumstances.

This time at The Dance Centre will allow me to gain a deeper understanding on my methodology for creating work, and use many tools out of my box to discover how to craft interesting moments and movement. I am particularly keen to explore the use of the breath within the group to create dynamic scenes that move and glide across the space, and then also as an individual to show differences in emotion. Other desires are to find a continuous flow of movement and body, and trying to extract this energy from videoed improvisations.

References to the plastic planet we are creating but also plastic relationships that have little depth – a dancer partnering another but never looking them in the eye. Synonyms of the word plastic such as flexible, pliable, elastic, shapeable and resilient will allow for interesting stimuli for the body.

I am looking forward to learning how to effectively lead improvisations that open the dancers to play and find effective techniques to choreograph group work that uses moments of contact and lifts. Hopefully, I'll be able to gather bits of rubbish/old clothing/un-recyclables and initiate movement that creates noise with the articles on the floor, comparing trash with people and how easily we may throw things out.

This residency will be a chance for me to discover and play, using new tools and old to generate content and ideas – I'm very excited to see where it could go in the studio!